This weekend will be a big weekend for the NHL TV ratings. On top of the excitement of the first round playoff games, there will also be the NHL Draft Lottery to see who will win the right to draft Erir Otters phenom Connor McDavid. Will it be the Buffalo Sabres, Ariozona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs or some other team?

Stoney Point - April 17, 2015 - This weekend will be a big weekend for the NHL TV ratings. On top of the excitement of the first round playoff games, there will also be the NHL Draft Lottery to see who will win the right to draft Erie Otters phenom Connor McDavid. Will it be the Buffalo Sabres, Ariozona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs or some other team?

When the NHL first came out with the idea of implementing the draft lottery, I was opposed to the concept. I grew up in an era where the worst team got the best pick. It was a simple as that. As a Cornwall Royals fan it was why Dale Hawerchuk went to the Winnipeg Jets and Owen Nolan went to the Quebec Nordiques.

I have grown to like the notion of the Draft Lottery, as this season it was a not a forgone conclusion at Christmas that McDavid would be going to the Buffalo Sabres. Under this system, my Leafs have a chance to get #97, as do defending Cup champs LA Kings and strong teams like the Boston Bruins and the Dallas Stars.

It would be great for the Leafs and the NHL if McDavid ended up in Toronto. Could you imagine him on a line with Max Domi and Anthony Duclair in Arizona? How about with Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle in Edmonton? Needless to say, there will be many people watching with anticipation on Saturday night when the lottery results are announced.

I couldn’t help but try it out and voila – the first time I did it, the Toronto Maple Leafs logo came up! I should have stopped there, but then thought what if I did this 100 times, what would the results be?

Similar to their season the Toronto Maple Leafs came short of expectations. The NHL odds had them at 9.5% and they only “won” 7% of the samples. However, the did come out on top in the first trial I ran, so let’s go with that!

Enjoy the lottery everyone! Should be fun to watch.

In his lifetime, Chris Savard has spent time as both an elected official and a hot air balloon pilot. As such, FULL OF HOT AIR seemed to be an appropriate name for this column. Savard will provide his thoughts on a number of topics including hockey on this site, as well as politics and local issues on OurHometown.ca. His opinion combined with $1.60 will buy you a medium coffee at Tim's! You can email him at csavard@ourhometown.ca